Best and Worst of 2010 - Part II

Another typically dead week in terms of new releases so we are continuing the Best and Worst theme I began last week with a discussion of albums and songs from 2010.  This time videos have been added for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Have a great New Years and may 2011 bring us world peace, less Jersey Shore cast appearances and lots of good new music!

Best Indie/Pop/Rock Album Reviewed on this Blog - Ra Ra Riot's The Orchard

This is not the album I gave the highest score to during the year (although it did manage a very good 8/10) but rather a retrospective look at what I've been listening to and enjoying on my own this year.  This year's Ra Ra Riot album is one of the most delightful and gratifying discs to be released.  It manages to balance a fun indiepop sound with the depth in lyrics you would expect from a top indie act.  Listen to one of the songs I recommended sampling, "Boy," below to get an example of the band's sound from The Orchard.

Best Electronic Album Reviewed on this Blog - Mackintosh Braun's Where We Are

Okay, okay--this is more of an electropop album than a pure electronic album but that's how good it is!  It manages to beat out albums from bands like Daft Punk and Underworld to take my top electronic album of the year.  Their electropop sound is very similar to the styles of OMD and Pet Shop Boys yet manages to never be a derivative of either of those or any other band's style.  The ability to maintain a sound that is very contemporary while leaning on the styles of past bands is one of the reasons this album is so impressive.  It's the album that I've listened to the most this year.  A pure joy.  Listen to one of the songs I recommended sampling, "Made For Us," below.

Best Hip-Hop/Rap Album Reviewed on the Blog - Kanye West's My Dark Twisted Fantasy

No surprise here really as Kanye's album is getting a lot of attention as the best album of the year from media sites like Pitchfork and Spin.  Kanye and his collaborators create a solid and intelligent album from beginning to end with some damn catchy, even haunting, songs.  (Luckily for Kanye, I don't factor cover art into my final tally...)  However, while there is no doubt this is a spectacular album (I originally gave it a 9/10), it probably would have lost out in this category to the album mentioned below if I had reviewed that album. Watch the video for one of the songs I recommended sampling, "Runaway," below:




Best Album Not Reviewed on this Blog - Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer [explicit version]
If you've read Part I of my Best and Worst of 2010 then you know I already awarded Mr. Green the best studio cover song of the year for "No One's Gonna Love You."  However that song and the Grammy nominated "Fuck You" are just two of the beautiful and hard jamming R&B/Soul songs that come to us from this album.  The entire album is chock full of music that will get you to either be seriously introspective about your love life (in a good way) or be ready to boogie until your shoes fall off on the dance floor.  It's nearly impossible to listen to this album and not come away loving it.  If you haven't seen the incredibly funny and amusing video for "Fuck You" then ready yourself for a treat below:

Worst Album Reviewed on this Blog - Young Man's Boy

I have already named the best album I reviewed this year so now it is time for me to reveal the most horrific album reviewed on this blog.  First of all this "master YouTube cover artist" released an album with absolutely no cover songs on it!  Yeah, that makes sense.  I guess it would have been okay if the music he did give us was enjoyable or fun to listen to but, unfortunately, Young Man swings and misses on all three counts leaving us one very pitiful and the absolutely most horrible album reviewed on this blog this year.  Congrats Young Man!  You can hear for yourself why this got worst album of the year below (keeping in mind this track is the creme de la creme of the album). 

Most Disappointing Single of the Year - We Are The World 25 for Haiti

Our final category of Bests and Worsts of 2010 is the most disappointing song of the year.  That honor goes to the 25th anniversary revival of We Are The World.  While the original was an off-beat collection of various singing stars from the 80's that Quincey Jones somehow turned into a catchy tune by wisely playing to the strengths of his soloists like Cyndi Lauper, Stevie Wonder, Steve Perry, and Willie Nelson by letting them be themselves.  For the 25th anniversary edition, however, Quincey proves that going bigger does not mean the song is getting better.  First there's waaaay too many artists contributing meaning that each contribution is lessened so you don't give the individual artists enough time to let their personalities blend with one another to create something greater than the sum of its parts.  Instead the entire song seems piecemeal and by the time you do get to something that does sound good you are already turned off by the horrible bits like Justin Bieber's overproduced opening and Miley Cyrus' grating, autotuned two line solo.  And don't even get me started on the bit with a superimposed Michael Jackson.  Enjoy the horribleness of it all below. 

New Music from 9/21/2010 - John Legend & The Roots, Matt Costa, and Mackintosh Braun

John Legend & The Roots Wake Up! - The R&B/Hip-Hop icons join forces on an album of funky songs from the 60's and 70's that still have social relevance today.  There is also one new song that John Legend wrote for the upcoming documentary Waiting For Superman.  C'mon now!  It's a new album by The Roots and John Legend!  Enough with the blather, let's get to the review!


"Hard Times" has an opening that harkens back to the soulful Baby Huey & The Babysitters original but infuses a modern rap in the middle that really manages to open the song up for younger audiences while still keeping true to the spirit and sound of the original.  "Ghetto Boy" doesn't transfuse modern and classic as well with its opening rap by Black Thought totally setting the wrong tone for the very thoughtful Donny Hathaway tune that Legend nimbly handles with his normally stunning vocals.  The well-known Harold Marvin classic "Wake Up Everybody" gets turned into a duet with Melanie Fiona that works surprisingly well although the rap by the generally awesome Common in the middle isn't as successful.  The new song, "Shine," is a very soulful, cozy tune that makes good use of Legend's voice with jazzy trumpeting offsetting the reluctantly hopeful lyrics. 

It's a good but not great covers album by two very talented groups of performers.  John Legend's voice is a good match to most of the songs given that the man could probably sing the phone book and it'd still be a hit.  The Roots do a good job backing the songs keeping it relatively mellow probably trying to stay true to the original artists.  When they do let go in songs like "Our Generation" and "Hang On" it's a treat to listen their take on classic funk.  The album alternates between songs that are extremely faithful to the original versions to songs that have been slightly altered (mainly by incorporating rap) that help update most of those songs for more modern audiences.  There aren't any songs that have been wildly transformed which I did find slightly surprising and the album skews more to the soulful than the funky side of things. 

Score: 7/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Hard Times" and "Wake Up Everybody"

M

Matt Costa Mobile Chateau - The So-Cal singer/songwriter releases his third full-length album.  His indie/folk-rock music would fall somewhere between Jack Johnson and Ryan Adams, although his style isn't a laid back as Johnson nor does it skew towards country like Adams sometimes does.  However, like those artists, Costa puts on a very energetic live show where he typically plays a number of instruments like the guitar, piano, harmonica, and anything else he's picked up over the years.  He also tours a lot and has opened for a number of big bands like Oasis, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab.  

Costa stays true to his style on his new album while bringing a new found depth to his musical sound as well.  The album opens with a song whose opening melody seems like it was borrowed from something found on a The Turtles or an early Beatles single and is just as quaint and catchy as one of those singles in "The Season."  "The Drive" is the most accessible track on the album with its catchy pop hooks and piano melody.  While songs like "Painted Face" don't have that different a melody as a standard Costa song but its eerie backing vocals and odd horn and organ work add a level of spookiness to a song about how people can have two faces.  The song at its core isn't that different from what Costa gave us previously but its brought to a greater level by the use of the tools at his disposal during production of the song. 

I think it's a good direction for Matt Costa.  He seems darker than he had been before and he also gives us a greater depth to his songs by using a wide range of instruments more diversely than previously ("Painted Face" and "Bleeding Hearts").  He also seems to be reaching to past with a couple of songs that have melodies that echo to the early days of rock ("Secret" and "The Season").  I didn't love every song on the album but I found it a very interesting album in that it kept me wondering what direction each song was going to take us next.  There's a greater diversity to the album than I was expecting going in yet, despite the different pulls in various directions, the total package is far from aimless. 

Score:  7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Drive" and "Painted Face"

Mackintosh Braun Where We Are - This two person electropop band from the Pacific Northwest release their debut second album.  Originally I was debating whether or not to spend the time reviewing a third album this week because it's a busy week at work but then I listened to this album and it was really good.  And then I tried to look the band up in Wikipedia and found they didn't even have a Wikipedia page so I thought someone should try to spread the word about them.  So while this may have started out as a pity review let me assure you this is an album worth a listen if you like electropop music. 

I would describe Mackintosh Braun as maybe two parts OMD, two parts Pet Shop Boys (a couple of references for you old folks like me), with a little bit of Miss Kitten sprinkled on top (and a reference for you kiddies out there).  I compare them to OMD because of the band's catchy synthetic pop hooks, to Pet Shop Boys for the danceable beats, and to Miss Kitten for their integration of more modern house and trance samples.  "Where We Are" has a definite OMD feel while a song like "Line in the Sand" has a definite Pet Shop Boys sound and beat.  Like most electropop bands, lots of synthesizers are used to achieve the band's sound, including on the vocals, but they aren't afraid to incorporate real instruments like guitars and bass into their songs either.

For a debut second album, this is a pretty impressive release.  It definitely sounds very polished and very well put together as an album.  Most of the songs are about love, either on the rise ("To Protect") or on the way out ("Made For Us").  The album opens with the extremely catchy "Could It Be" and it continues all the way through to the album title's eponymous song as the finale.  Definitely a group worth checking out as they have a sound that recalls some pretty good bands from the past while still managing to sound modern. 

Score: 8.5/10
Songs to Sample:  "Where We Are" and "Made For Us"